How To Host Your First In-Person Event

Matthew Thompson

Oct 14 (edited) in Other

Just finished hosting 50+ Skoolers from around the world in my hometown Belfast.

Here's three things I learned to help you plan your first IRL event :)

1. Don't plan the schedule too strictly

Everyone's favourite moments of the week were unplanned.

The unexpected topics we covered
The random places we went for dinner
And the laughs/tears we shared along the way

There's a reason why

@Sam Ovens

and

@Alex Hormozi

start every single 1-day with a blank page.

@Nick Guadagnoli

calls it "emergence theory," and it's the secret sauce most IRL events skip.

(It took me 7 back-to-back trips to Vegas to finally figure this out lol. Don't take as long as I did).

2. Leave a little wiggle room for things to "go wrong"

Something

@Ted Carr

and I always talk about is that "the difference between a trip and an adventure is that something goes wrong."

Getting stuck in fog while hiking up a mountain
Forgetting a towel while going sea-swimming
Not having enough chairs because so many people showed up

All these things created "shared experiences" for us to go through together — which resulted in super-powerful memories, bonds and stories.

We didn't get it all right. But we had a lot of fun along the way.

3. Your Community is craving in-person connection more than you think.

People spent thousands of dollars to fly to Belfast from places like Canada, France, Holland, Switzerland, Germany, United States, and Australia (35 hours).

The one reason they came? (According to

@Calvin Hollywood

)

"Proximity," AKA to be around:

Like-minded people
Who are trying to achieve the same goal
And a group where they felt like they belonged

This is the reason people joined your community in the first place.

Why not take it offline?

Some good news: we recorded everything.

All the talks, q+a's and even our first ever LIVE Skool Stories Podcast.

Will edit it up and share it with you all in the next few days.

— Matt

P.S. If you want an actual "how-to guide" for running your first IRL event all you gotta do is answer the following five questions:

Who?
What?
Where?
When?
Why?

Nail that, and the rest genuinely takes care of itself.

✌️

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